5.1. Second rehearsal of cantata, with singers

Timur Bekbosunov and Maestro Zhamagat Temirgaliev

Posted by Eugene Moon; photos by Sandra Powers


The singers came to today's rehearsal, a women's vocal group led by a Russian conductor, Yan Rudkovsky. Dan and I started recording the piece. It began with Timur speaking in Russian, probably a summary of the history of Kazakhstan and its people as an intro. Then the music starts. The music was wonderful and I can remember how it goes from hearing the last rehearsal. It was absolutely wonderful and the good thing about the recording device on the tripod was that I could record the rehearsal with my own camera and capture that music they were playing. The beginning sounded almost Western or cinematic then it mixed with folk tunes and some other Western styles of music. Timur sang very loudly in operatic style, mostly in Russian. He sang a few words in English, like, "I am a Kazakh," and also English in the section that is a bit like rap, where he talks in double speed, compared to the pace of his tenor singing of the music. All I remember from that rap part was something about defending against or being attacked by the Tatar, Russians, Cossacks, and Uzbeks. It has a very interesting rhythm and mood to it, almost like a movie soundtrack where the villain plans a strategy. The ensemble took a break and Delora and I took photos, exploring the instruments in this instrumental wonderland. They were just amazing, especially the Zhetygen, Adyrna, and Kobyz. The musicians returned and played again, this time without interruption from the conductor. I recorded again, but I missed a couple of seconds of the intro where Timur was speaking in the steppe winds (background singers were making the wind sound). It was wonderful to hear it played again.